Israel halted its airstrikes against Gaza Strip militants and rocket fire from the Palestinian territory ebbed as a cease-fire ending 4 days of clashes appeared to be taking effect. At least 24 Palestinians, including at least four civilians, died in cross-border fighting since March 9.
Links: Israel, Palestine

2012 Mar 13

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara named Jeannot Ahoussou-Kouadio as prime minister, a prominent member of a rival party which had backed his 2010 election bid.
Links: Ivory Coast

2012 Mar 13

Japan said it had won approval from Beijing to buy Chinese government bonds for the first time, in a move aimed at binding Asia's two biggest economies and traditional rivals closer together.
Links: China, Japan

2012 Mar 13

In northern Nigeria suspected sect members shot dead two policemen in Kano. Soldiers killed one of the assailants during the attack.
Links: Nigeria

2012 Mar 13

In Pakistan American drone-fired missiles hit a vehicle traveling on the Afghan border, killing six militants from a group known to have signed a nonaggression pact with the Pakistani army. Two commanders from the network led by Maulvi Nazir were among the dead in the attack in the Birmal district of South Waziristan.
Links: USA, Pakistan

A Pakistani court jailed Naseem Ahmed (42) for life for burning a Koran. The Muslim man said he would appeal the sentence, professing his innocence and saying he had no idea that a Koran was among a pile of books he set alight.
Links: Pakistan, Islam

Russian and South Korean scientists signed a deal on joint research intended to recreate a woolly mammoth, an animal which last walked the earth some 10,000 years ago.
Links: Russia, South Korea, Animal, BioTech

2012 Mar 13

Somalia's Shebab rebels banned the aid group Save the Children from operating in regions under their control. It accused Save the Children of distributing expired porridge to children, as well as corruption and failing to comply with the rules laid down by the Al Qaeda-linked group.
Links: Somalia

2012 Mar 13

South African wildlife dealer Jacques Els (39) was sentenced to eight years in jail over 38 horns cut off sedated rhinos. Els was arrested in 2010 after buying the horns for 760,000 rands ($100,000, 77,000 euros) from game farm manager Tommie Fourie who drugged the animals and cut off their trademark spikes. Els claimed the horns were removed from the animals "to protect them from poaching."
Links: South Africa, Animal

In Switzerland a bus carrying Belgian students returning from a ski holiday crashed into a wall in a tunnel near Sierre, killing 22 Belgian 12-year-olds and six adults. Another 24 students were hospitalized with injuries.
Links: Switzerland, Tragedy, Bus Crash

2012 Mar 13

The Syrian army recaptured the northern rebel stronghold of Idlib near the Turkish border, a major base that military defectors had held for months. An international rights group, meanwhile, said the regime was mining the border with Turkey. The LCC and the Observatory said that bodies of six people were found today near the village of Maaret Shoureen in Idlib province.
Links: Syria

2012 Mar 13

The Zimbabwean government and mining firm Zimplats reached an agreement to transfer a 51 percent stake to local investors, as required by the country's controversial "indigenization" policy.
Links: Zimbabwe

2012 Mar 13

In Bahrain vandals smashed the windows of one of country’s oldest Shiite mosques and ransacked offices and prayer areas, making sure to pull down some framed parchments with Quranic verses. Shiite clerics claim at least 38 mosques and affiliated sites, such as charity offices, have been destroyed since the revolt began in February 2011.
Links: Bahrain

2012 Mar 13

In Colombia oil tankers carrying oil from the Ombu field in Caqueta came under fire from guerrillas leaving 2 civilians dead.
Links: Colombia, Oil

Some 3,000 people gathered in Liverpool, England, for the annual Global Entrepreneurship Congress.
Links: Britain

2012 Mar 13

Japan, the EU and the US brought a case to the World Trade Organization (WTO) alleging that China was exporting too little of tungsten, molybdenum and 17 rare earth elements.
Links: USA, China, Japan, EU, WTO

In New York Kurt Myers (64) started a fire in his apartment in Mohawk and then killed two customers in a nearby barbershop. He then drove to nearby Herkimer and killed two more people before holing up in an abandoned building. Myers was killed the next day in an exchange of gunfire with police.
Links: USA, New York, Murder, Mad Man

Afghan intelligence agents killed five suspected suicide bombers and arrested two others, all members of the militant Haqqani network, during a raid in which a truck was seized with 7,200 pounds of explosive on the outskirts of Kabul.
Links: Afghan, Terrorism

2013 Mar 13

In Afghanistan several people were killed and injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of sports fans watching a buzkashi game in Kunduz province.
Links: Afghan

2013 Mar 13

Bahrain’s public prosecutor's office said six people have been detained over the last couple of days for allegedly defaming the country's ruler on Twitter.
Links: Bahrain, Internet

2013 Mar 13

Croatia's parliament approved the withdrawal of some 100 peacekeeping troops from the Golan Heights amid fears they could be targeted by Syrian government troops fighting the rebels.
Links: Israel, Syria, Croatia

2013 Mar 13

In Egypt a leaked report concluded that police were behind the killing of nearly 900 protesters in Tahrir Square during the 18-day uprising that began on Jan 25, 2011.
Links: Egypt

German authorities banned three ultraconservative Islamic groups, including one whose Internet propaganda videos helped inspire the extremist who killed two American airmen at Frankfurt airport in 2011.
Links: Germany, Islam

2013 Mar 13

Greenland held elections. Aleqa Hammond (47) looked set to be Greenland's first female prime minister after her social democratic Siumut party won 42 percent of the 31-seat parliament on a platform of greater control and heavier taxation of foreign mining.
Links: Greenland

2013 Mar 13

Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq freed eight captured Turkish soldiers and officials as part of peace efforts between Turkey and the rebel group aimed at ending a decades-long conflict.
Links: Iraq, Turkey, Kurds

2013 Mar 13

Scientists said that the number of Monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico dropped by 59% this year, falling to its lowest level since record keeping began 20 years ago.
Links: Italy, Mexico, Insects

2013 Mar 13

New Zealand lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favor of a bill allowing same-sex marriage, all but assuring that it will soon become law.
Links: Gays, New Zealand

In Karachi, Pakistan, gunmen shot and killed pioneering activist Perween Rahman (54), the director of the Orangi Pilot Project, who helped bring services like sewer and water to the city's poorest neighborhoods.
Links: Pakistan, Murder

2013 Mar 13

In southwest Pakistan gunmen abducted two female Czech tourists and their police guard as they were traveling on a bus through troubled Baluchistan province. On March 28, 2015, Hana Humpalova and Antonie Chrastecka returned to the Czech Rep. Their release was negotiated by Turkish non-governmental humanitarian organization IHH.
Links: Pakistan, Czech Rep.

2013 Mar 13

In Saudi Arabia 7 men convicted of theft, looting and armed robbery were beheaded, more than a week after their families and a rights group appealed to the king for clemency. One of the men told The Associated Press in early March that he was only 15 when he was arrested as part of a ring that stole jewelry in 2004 and 2005. Nasser al-Qahtani said he was tortured to confess and had no access to lawyers.
Links: Mayhem, Saudi Arabia

2013 Mar 13

Syrian government troops fought fierce battles with rebels for control of key neighborhoods in the north of Damascus. A European Union staff member was killed in a rocket attack in an opposition stronghold south of the capital. Fighting also raged in other cities, including in Homs, where the regime pounded rebel positions with artillery and carried out several airstrikes on the Baba Amr district.
Links: Syria

2013 Mar 13

Tunisian vendor Adel Khedhri (27) died of full-body burns a day after setting himself ablaze. He was from a poor town in northwestern Tunisia and had struggled to find a steady job to support his mother and siblings.
Links: Suicide, Tunisia

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio (76), known for his work with the poor in Buenos Aires' slums, was elected as the 266th Pope. He became the first Jesuit pope and first non-European since the Middle Ages and decided to call himself Francis after St. Francis of Assisi.
Links: Argentina, Vatican

2013 Mar 13

Zimbabwe's official election body said it will not back down on its ban preventing a leading human rights group from monitoring a referendum o0n a new constitution on March 16.
Links: Zimbabwe

2013 Mar 13

Ken Salazar, US Interior Sec., announced plans for two large federal solar projects in the California desert.
Links: USA, California, Environment

2013 Mar 13

Chile officially opened the $1.3 billion Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the world’s most powerful radio telescope. It consisted of 66 dishes.
Links: Chile, Astronomy

The Colorado Court of Appeals said people whose cases were under appeal when Amendment 64 took effect in Dec 1012, are eligible to have their convictions for possessing small amount of marijuana dismissed. The amendment allowed adults over 21 to possess up to an ounce of marijuana.
Links: USA, Colorado

2014 Mar 13

In Texas Rashad Charjuan Owens (21) drove drunk into a crowd at the South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival in Austin leaving 2 people dead and 23 injured. 9 remained hospitalized in critical condition. A 3rd person died of her injuries on March 17.
Links: USA, Tragedy, Texas, Drunk

2014 Mar 13

US border agent Esteban Manzanares (32) committed suicide. He was accused of kidnapping and assaulting an immigrant woman, her daughter and another girl a day earlier in Mission, Texas.
Links: USA, Sex, Texas

2014 Mar 13

US authorities said Ahmed Bel Bacha (44), held for 12 years without charge at Guantanamo Bay, has been turned over to the Algerian government. This reduced the Gitmo prisoner population to 154.
Links: Algeria, USA, Gitmo

2014 Mar 13

In Texas a suspected drunk driver plowed into a crowd of SXSW festival-goers in Austin early today, killing 2 people and injuring 23.
Links: USA, Tragedy, Texas

The Toronto National Post reported that a new generation of mutant lice have become immune to poisons of decades past and constituted 97.1% of all Canadian head lice cases.
Links: Canada, Insects, Hair

Czech priest and intellectual Tomas Halik (65) won the 2014 Templeton Prize. Halik pushed for religious and cultural freedoms after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and became a leading advocate of dialogue among different faiths and non-believers.
Links: Czech Rep.

East African heads of state met in Addis Ababa in the latest push for peace in war-torn South Sudan, where almost three months of raging conflict has left thousands dead.
Links: Ethiopia, South Sudan

2014 Mar 13

Egypt brokered a ceasefire aimed at ending a flare-up of rocket attacks from Gaza on Israeli towns and Israeli air strikes in the Palestinian enclave.
Links: Egypt, Israel, Palestine

2014 Mar 13

In Egypt an attack on an army bus killed one officer and wounded three others in Cairo. The army blamed the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, who in turn strongly condemned the attack.
Links: Egypt

2014 Mar 13

El Salvador’s electoral court said Sanchez Ceren (69), the leftist candidate of the ruling Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), won the March 9 presidential election with 50.1% of the votes.
Links: El Salvador

2014 Mar 13

The Paris-based OECD said it has postponed all activities related to Russia's accession to the organization following a request from its 34 members.
Links: Russia, France, OECD

Germany's Angela Merkel warned Moscow that it risked "massive" political and economic damage if it refused to change course on Ukraine.
Links: Russia, Ukraine, Germany

2014 Mar 13

In Germany Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness was found guilty and sentenced to 3½ years in prison for evading millions of euros (dollars) in tax through an undeclared Swiss bank account.
Links: Germany, Taxes, Soccer